In Search Of Justine

Of all the pontificators on Twitter who weighed in on the unfortunate Friday night fiasco featuring one Justine Sacco (in absentia), several of them struck a chord with this PR pro. I personally weighed in to suggest that the ready-to-pounce Twittersphere give Ms. Sacco a break until she resurfaces to explain herself:

In my mind, the tweet was so offensive, especially coming from a person who has reputational oversight of a $5 billion publicly traded company, that I struggled to accept that it willfully emanated from her Twitter account. I was hesitant to condemn her even after receiving an IM from a media reporter friend of mine who knew and liked Ms. Sacco, but who believed nonetheless that she in fact sent the offending tweet.

Separately, Brew PR’s inimitable Brooke Hammerling also was quick to condemn Ms. Sacco after uncovering her history of off-color Twitter commentary including this little doozy:

a tweet from a year ago. So let’s be clear…she’s a “class act” RT @JustineSacco: I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night. #fml

It also begs the question: how could someone who just eight years ago began her career as a junior account executive in Dan Klores’ shop, and only two years ago served as a publicist for World Wrestling Entertainment, now be running corporate communications for Barry Diller’s IAC? Here’s her work history:

To be fair, I have not met Ms. Sacco, nor am I familiar with her performance at any of her previous jobs. My pal, that senior media industry reporter who IM’d me, did say that he liked her and she always delivered for him. But are likability and hustle the most important competencies for successfully flourishing in such a prominent communications role? Aren’t one’s instincts and a flair for the English (or whatever) language perhaps more important?

“Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet,” Sacco said in the statement. “There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.

For being insensitive to this crisis — which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly — and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed.

This is my father’s country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused.”

One final observation: the rapid spread of this heinous tweet sadly may have been fueled by the many PR-haters plying the journalism trade. Would this meme have grown as fast and as wide if Ms. Sacco were a politician or red-necked reality TV star? I wonder.

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